After surging regular season, Monroe Central Seminoles seek more history in playoffs
WOODSFIELD — After a regular season where Monroe Central matched their highest win total since 2011, and saw three individuals set single-season school records, the Seminoles (9-1) are eager to see the good times roll into their D-VI Region 23 first-round matchup against Colonel Crawford (8-2) on Friday at Woodsfield Memorial Park.
The Seminoles, seeded eighth in their region, will face the ninth-seeded Eagles at 7 p.m. Friday. Both teams made the playoffs last year, and both advanced one round before bowing out.
A new year meant a new team for Monroe Central though, who improved from a 6-4 regular season record last year to a 9-1 mark this year.
Quarterback Tucker Howell became the school’s single-season passing leader, edge defender Corbin Farnsworth became the single-season sacks leader and placekicker Wyatt Cohen became the single-season extra points leader.
“We had a great regular season, and we look at the playoffs like a second season,” Monroe Central head coach Jonathan Calder said. “The competition gets better week-in, week-out in the playoffs, but with the regular season we had, our guys are confident, they have belief in themselves and expectations. I look forward to seeing what the postseason brings.”
Howell finished the year with 1,599 yards passing at a 61.5% clip and 24 touchdowns against just three interceptions. Farnsworth led the team with 16 sacks and 77 total tackles, and Cohen booted 38 extra points.
Howell was also the team’s leading rusher with 887 yards on the ground and 16 touchdowns, followed by AJ Rutter who compiled 461 rushing yards and four scores.
The two leading receivers on the team are Chance Allen, who finished with 536 yards and 10 touchdowns, and Cooper Howell with 413 yards and two touchdowns.
The surge of success has been a build-up across the careers of the current upperclassmen– the Seminoles have gone from 4-6, to 2-8, to 7-5 to 9-1 the last four years– and Monroe Central has seen their community get behind them as they have built up steam this season.
“Monroe Central, really the whole high school– the basketball team last year, football team last year, the volleyball team– there’s just a lot of excitement in all the sports and the high school itself,” Calder said. “That carried over to this year. It’s not just the team, it’s the entire community coming back to how it was in the 90’s going into the 2000’s– not that it ever completely went away. I’ve had businesses call me pretty much every week offering to feed the team. The community’s always loved the football team and you’re really seeing that.”
Their first challenge will come in a ground-and-pound Eagles team who Calder sees as being similar to his own squad. They are led by tailback Connor McMichael, who finished off his regular season with a game against Wynford where he garnered 134 total yards and four total touchdowns. McMichael is at the top of the Seminole defense’s scouting report this week.
“They’re a tough team, they like to run the ball,” Calder said. “They’ve got a really nice running back with good size, [McMichael]. That looks like their identity, running the ball, a physical team. We look a lot alike as far as size and our philosophy with running the ball. I know we have Tucker and we pass the ball too, but the philosophies look to be the same– play tough, physical defense and run the ball.”
Calder says his team should be at full strength for their foray into the playoffs, with the experience to match their talent. Of the Seminoles’ senior class of Howell, Allen, Evan Knowlton, Tyler Whitacre, Logan Powell, Tristyn Crisp, Clint Rader, Ethan Gillespie, Shawn Heeter, Andre Pickenpaugh, Billy Kroll and Kaleb Grimm, many were out on the field for last year’s playoff run, and far before then too.
“This group of seniors, they’ve been playing a lot of football the past four years,” Calder said. “They were forced into starting roles, some even as freshmen. The experience they gained last year, they know the drill, they know what to expect and they know the competition level. So far this week we’ve had good practices and they seem to be focused up and ready to go.”